Golden bandicoot

Isoodon auratus

Blamed on foxes

IUCN status: Vulnerable

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: ****

IUCN claim: “The reasons for past declines of the Golden Bandicoot are predation by feral cats and red foxes”

Studies in support

Bandicoots were last confirmed in the Nullarbor 10 years after foxes arrived (Current submission).

Studies not in support

Foxes were not among predators of reintroduced bandicoots (Christensen & Burrows 1995; Blythman et al. 2020). Bandicoots were last confirmed in NSW 46 years before foxes arrived (Current submission).

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies linking foxes to golden bandicoots. In contradiction with the claim, the extirpation records from NSW predates the fox arrival record.

Evidence linking Isoodon auratus to foxes. A. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Isoodon auratus and foxes. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that foxes contribute to the decline of Isoodon auratus, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance. B. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of foxes. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Fairfax 2019. See methods section in [current submission] for details on evidence categories.

References

Blythman, M., Lohr, C., Sims, C. and Morris, K., 2020. Translocation of Golden Bandicoots, Isoodon auratus barrowensis, from a fenced enclosure to unfenced managed land on Matuwa (formally Lorna Glen) September 2015: Final Report. Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, Perth Western Australia, 43.

Christensen, P. and Burrows, N., 1995. Project desert dreaming: experimental reintroduction of mammals to the Gibson Desert, Western Australia. Reintroduction Biology of Australian and New Zealand Fauna’.(Ed. M. Serena.) pp, pp.199-207.

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.

EPBC. (2013) Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by the European Red Fox (2008). Five yearly review. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Government of Australia (Appendix E: EPBC Act listed threatened species).

Fairfax, Dispersal of the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) across Australia. Biol. Invasions 21, 1259-1268 (2019).

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023